Discover one of London’s best kept secrets - DEBUT at Shoreditch Treehouse - the acclaimed classical music experience held in a magical bohemian loft space in Central London. This intimate and fun night is like no concert you’ve experienced before, DEBUT at Shoreditch Treehouse offers awe-inspiring performances, time to chat to your favourite musicians and the chance to feel at home in the heart of the city.
You’ll be greeted at the door by the Shoreditch Treehouse team, invited to grab a craft beer or some bubbles and take in the amazing space. Surrounded by hundreds of fairy lights and beneath the vaulted wooden ceiling draped with plants and a swing, our resident piano improviser Sam Peña sets the tone for a spontaneous night ahead - mashing up your favourite tunes with Bach, Mozart and Liszt. Then it’s time to gather round our Steinway 9-foot concert grand piano, sit back, relax and enjoy some of the most exciting musicians from around the world, compèred by DEBUT’s own Lizzie Holmes.
Launched in 2017, DEBUT at Shoreditch Treehouse has hosted over 50 sold out concerts showcasing over 150 musicians, including up and coming talent as well as fully fledged stars. Split into three parts of 30 minutes the night features 5 extraordinary musicians (different every month) sharing their favourite pieces from the world of classical music, opera and musical theatre as well as stories from their careers. With over four hundred 5* reviews from around the world already, this is an experience not to be missed!
September Musicians
Ryan O’Gorman West End baritone
Kelly Mathieson West End soprano
Manu Brazo saxophone
Erika Gundesen piano
Sam Peña, resident piano improviser
Lizzie Holmes soprano & host
Programme
Part I 29’
Ross Introduction
Oliver - Reviewing the Situation by Lionel Bart - Ryan & Erika 4’
Lizzie Introduction
The Lorelei by Gershwin - Lizzie & Erika 5’
She Loves Me - Dear Friend by Harnick and Bock into The Facebook Song - Kelly & Erika 4’30
The King & I - I Have Dreamed 3’30 - Ryan, Kelly & Erika 3’30
A Gershwin Fantasy for Piano & Saxophone - Gershwin/Martino - Manu & Erika 9’
Beauty and the Beast - Me by Alan Menken & Tim Rice - Ryan & Erika 3’30
Part II 30
Embraceable You by Gershwin, arranged by Earl Wild - Erika 3’
Shrek - Who I’d Be by Jeanine Tesori - Ryan & Erika 4’
The Blues Brothers - Minnie the Moocher by Cab Calloway - Ryan & Erika 3’
Evita - You Must Love Me by Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice - Kelly & Erika 4’
She Loves Me - Vanilla Ice Cream by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock - Kelly & Erika 4’
La Traviata Fantasy for Piano & Saxophone - Verdi/Lovreglio (arr. Brazo) - Manu & Erika 12’
Part III 28’30
Tiny’s Song by Britten - Lizzie & Erika 5’
Happy Days Are Here / Get Happy - Kelly & special guest 2’
The Phantom of the Opera - Wishing by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, arranged for Kelly - Kelly & Erika 4’
Devil's Rag by Jean Matitia - Manu & Erika 6’
My Fair Lady - I could have danced all night by Lerner and Loewe - Kelly & Erika 4’
Les Misérables - Stars by Schonberg & Boubil - Ryan & Erika 3’30
Carousel - If I loved you by Rodgers & Hammerstein - Ryan, Kelly, Lizzie & Erika 4’
Biographies
Kelly Mathieson
soprano
Training: Royal College of Music
Theatre: Christine Daaé in Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty's Theatre); Johanna in Sweeney Todd (Huddersfield Music Festival, 2018).
Opera: Barbarina in Le Nozza Di Figaro (Scottish Opera); Aggrippina (Theater an der Wien); Pamina in Die Zauberflote (Puglia Opera Festival).
Concert: Magic of the Musicals (Royal Albert Hall); Stars of Musicals (Royal Concert Hall)
Ryan O’Gorman
baritone
Theatre Credits include: Voice of Audrey2 in Little Shop of Horrors (Storyhouse) John in Miss Saigon (UK & International tour); Tom Collins In Rent (London/UK tour, 20th Anniversary cast); Les Miserables (Queens, 30th Anniversary cast); Billy Elliot (Victoria Palace); Oliver! (UK & Ireland tour); The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s)
Concerts: The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary (Royal Albert Hall); Something Wonderful (Royal Festival Hall)
Television: BBC’s Sound of Musicals
Workshop credits: Alan Scotts ‘Some Sunny Day’, directed by Tim Sheader
Erika Gundesen
piano
Erika Gundesen is a distinguished graduate of the University of British Columbia in Canada as well as the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where she was awarded a Masters in Piano Performance as well as an Artist Diploma as a répétiteur. She has competed as a finalist in the Canadian Music Competition as well as the Knigge International Piano Competition. She has also been an assistant conductor at the Guildhall School, a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio, and an Emerging Artist for Scottish Opera. Erika has worked as a freelance pianist, coach and conductor in Canada and the UK, including recitals, opera, cabaret and theatre productions.
Recent credits include Queen of the Mist (Pint of Wine/Charing Cross Theatre), The Magic Flute, Káťa Kabanová, Anthropocene, Rigoletto (Scottish Opera), Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, A Chorus Line (Geoids Musical Theatre), Whistle Down the Wind, Parade, Oliver!, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd (Vivo d’Arte), Così fan tutte (Opera Loki), Pirates of Penzance, Urinetown (St. Monica’s Players), The Tale of Januarie, Ariane, The Rape of Lucretia, Side by Side by Sondheim, Crazy for You (Guildhall School), Parade (London Theatre Workshop), Songs for a New World (Jazzhands Optional), Titanic and The Music Man (Theatre Under the Stars Vancouver).
Lizzie Holmes
soprano & founder of DEBUT
British soprano Lizzie Holmes was born in Dorset and grew up in Ethiopia, Hong Kong and Australia. Praised for her “infectious smile and creamy soprano” her recent roles have included Cunegonde in Candide for Bernstein at 100 at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall, Laurette in Bizet’s Doctor Miracle for Wexford Opera in Ireland, Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel for Grange Park Opera, Destino in La Calisto for Longborough Festival Opera and both Mimi and Musetta in the Olivier Award nominated ‘Best New Opera’ La bohème at the Trafalgar Studios for King’s Head Theatre in the West End.
After reading English Literature at Warwick University, Lizzie was offered places at all 5 top conservatoires in the UK. She graduated from London’s Royal College of Music with Distinction straight into her West End debut in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in 2014, a year later she founded DEBUT. Recent solo recitals include the Royal Opera House, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Royal Albert Hall, and Cadogan Hall with the Bands of the Household Division. Lizzie makes major concert hall debuts across the UK as the Soprano Soloist for Raymond Gubbay’s Johann Strauss Gala Tour, including the Viennese New Year’s Eve Gala 2019 at the Barbican Hall.
Manu Brazo
saxophone
Manu, whose performance was described as “100% colossal and amazing” when he appeared on Classic FM has recently performed solo at Downton Abbey Live and as the opening act for Cliff Richard in front of more than 7000 people. Manu made his concerto debut in the UK with Guildford Symphony Orchestra in 2016 and since then he has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Croydon Symphony Orchestra and London City Orchestras amongst others. Manu has been selected as one of the Making Music's Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist and was also appointed BBC introducing Artist.
He has performed at Radio 3's in tune, for the BBC South and as a soloist at the Royal Opera House, Victoria and Albert Museum, St Martin in the Fields, King's Place, Newbury Festival, Teatro de la Maestranza (Seville), St James’s Piccadilly, the Royal Academy of Arts, as well as at the Kammermussikkfest in Risor, Norway and the Aegean Arts Festival in Crete. Manu was selected to take part in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme for 2018 which saw him perform at the Snape Maltings Proms conducted by Marin Alsop. In 2017 Manu won the Royal College of Music’s Saxophone Competition and the Guildford Symphony Orchestra Competition for Young Soloists, later that year he was also selected to take part in the London Sinfonietta Academy. Manu studied Master in Performance and Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music of London. Manu is a Tillet Trust’s, Talent-Unlimited and Concordia Foundation Artist.
“Audiences are left with open eyes and a thirst for discovering more”
“Intimate, alternative, engaging”